Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) followed Mr. Boehner to close debate, but spoke only briefly to urge passage. “Just remember these four words: Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” she said, reinforcing her party’s portrayal of the bill as good for the economy.

As you may recall, we were assured that millions of jobs would be “created or saved” if only the “stimulus” bill were passed. Unemployment, they swore, would not exceed 8%. Well, we are at 9.4% now and that number is expected to climb. Many states, in fact, are already well into double digit unemployment. Then there is the latest from the US Department of Labor:

Employers took 2,933 mass layoff actions in May that resulted in the separation of 312,880 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer. The number of mass layoff events in May increased by 221 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 41,654. Over the year, the number of mass layoff events increased by 1,232 and associated
initial claims increased by 132,322. Initial claims rose to its highest level on record, while events matched the peak level from March 2009, with data available back to 1995. In May, 1,331 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in
165,802 initial claims. Over the year, manufacturing events and initial claims more than doubled. (See table 1.)

During the 18 months from December 2007 through May 2009, the total number of mass layoff events (seasonally adjusted) was 37,059, and the number of initial claims (seasonally adjusted) was 3,811,307. (December 2007 was the start of a recession as designated by the National Bureau
of Economic Research.)

The national unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in May 2009, seasonally adjusted, up from 8.9 percent the prior month and from 5.5 percent a year earlier. In May, total nonfarm payroll employment decreased by 345,000 over the month and by 5,366,000 from a year earlier.

By the yardstick of the “stimulus”, Pelosi’s repetition of the word “jobs” like a mantra indicate that we would all do well to, indeed, remember jobs.

As in remember when there were any jobs at all.

Because the trade war that the House bill would touch off will sink this nation’s economy completely.

2 Responses to Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

One of the externalities of the Obama recession is a crime increase. A “green” criminal on Monday last, tried to steal my bicycle. Well, the police caught him, and he will be wearing an orange jump suit soon, I hope.